Rome: they found the ruins of a theater of Nero

A few meters from the Vatican, in Rome, in a construction site of the parking lot of a luxurious hotel, workers discovered the ruins of a theater that, apparently, belonged to Emperor Nero, who practiced acts of poetry and music there. Wall paintings and imposing marble columns were unexpectedly found as part of the impressive building of more than two thousand years that belonged to the historic emperor, recognized for a chaotic mandate that marked the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. With this excavation we were able to propose an identification proposal that is based on a series of archaeological clues that are very consistent with each other and that lead us to identify this space as the ancient theater of Nero, “said Alessio de Cristofaro, archaeologist of the City of Rome who participated in the excavation. The remains that correspond to the left area of the cavea and the scene, where architectural elements such as columns and decorative objects also appeared, comprise an important sector of the theater that was previously described by authors such as Pliny, Suetonius or Tacitus. The rich architectural decoration, consisting of white marbles and colored marbles, fluted columns of Ionic order, stuccos covered with gold sheets and the presence of a certain type of bricks allow us to accurately date the building between the time of Caligula and Nero, “explained Cristofaro in dialogue with National Geographic.

Original source in Spanish